Library Journal
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Clinical psychologist Neufeld and health clinic physician Mat? (When the Body Says No) offer readers much more than simple platitudes in this excellent book. The problem: today's kids are more peer- than parent-oriented and are not manageable or teachable. Furthermore, the unconditional love and acceptance they crave is completely absent from their peer relationships. According to the authors, parents need to take the lead in reestablishing the cherished connection they once had with their children as infants. They suggest seven principles of natural discipline, directives that include staying attached; keeping connected; never using separation techniques, anger, or impulses to "punish" the child; and never focusing on a child's behavior, no matter how horrible it may be. All the nagging, time outs, reward charts, and tough love commonly prescribed to parents should be replaced with the process of "collecting," or reengaging with, their children. This book, much like Patricia Hersch's A Tribe Apart, maintains that peer attachment, or "tribalization," is leading to a society no one wants-where teen depression, bullying, aggression, and suicide are almost commonplace, too many children are capable yet completely unmotivated, and high schools resemble prisons. Highly recommended.-Linda Beck, Indian Valley P.L., Telford, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.